Why Health Literacy Matters and How
Telehealth Can Help
 |
| Health Literacy - CDC |
For public health professionals health
literacy is one of the first things we learn about. Why? Because it cascades
into and influences all areas of health. Per the CDC’s definition, personal health
literacy is the “degree to which individuals have the ability to find,
understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions
and actions for themselves and others.”
Current data suggests that about one
third of American adults, or 89 million people, have insufficient health
literacy skills. They do not have the tools (often out of their control and due
to a range of circumstances) to effectively seek and obtain the medical and
preventive care they need, and are twice as likely to report poor health
outcomes.
🔽
How does health
literacy impact patient outcomes?
A number of factors may influence an
individual’s health literacy, including living in poverty, lack of education,
race/ethnicity, age, substance abuse and other addictions, and disability.
Important to note is that just because an individual has high overall literacy,
doesn’t mean they have high health literacy—while often overall literacy
facilitates higher health literacy, this is not always the case.
An individual’s health literacy
impacts their ability to:
◆ Understand their care plan including
symptom management, prescriptions, appointment cadence, etc.
◆ Communicate effectively with their
providers
◆ Make informed decisions about and then
receive treatment
◆ Know when a situation is emergent or
not
◆ Navigate the healthcare system -
insurance coverage, forms, locating the providers and specialists they need
access to for quality and affordable care
◆ Understand preventative measures they
can take to prevent illness
🔽
How can telehealth
help?
To fully understand how telehealth can
help promote health literacy, let’s explore telehealth’s role in each area
noted above:
◆ Care plan understanding including
symptom management and prescription adherence
◆ Communicating effectively with
providers
◆ Making informed decisions about
treatment options
◆ Knowing when a situation is an
emergency or not
◆ Navigating the healthcare system
◆ Understanding preventative measures
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